Trailers for Miss Representation and
The Mask You Live In
The Representation Project
These two short video texts are excerpts from longer films that explore the significance of the media in shaping our expectations of femininity and masculinity. The first is the trailer for Miss Representation, a 2011 documentary that explores the connection between media representation of girls and women and the underrepresentation of women in politics, business, and other positions of power. The second video text, The Mask You Live In, is a trailer for the forthcoming partner film to Miss Representation about the effects of socializing boys to “man up” in U.S. culture. These texts offer qualitative and quantitative data about the effects of the media and culture on girls and boys, and the long-standing effects these can have on the ways we think about ourselves and act in the world.
Marie C. Wilson, one of the experts quoted in Miss Representation and co-founder of “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day,” says of the media’s representation of very narrow definitions of femininity (and masculinity, as Jackson Katz points out) that “You can’t be what you can’t see.” In other words, the media matters because it shapes our sense of what is normal and desirable. How might the media become “an instrument of change,” as Katie Couric says in Miss Representation, for both girls and boys? What examples might you point to of alternative media that foster healthier role models for all of us?
Source: http://therepresentationproject.org
Courtesy of the Representation Project http://therepresentationproject.org/
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Courtesy of the Representation Project http://therepresentationproject.org/
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Reading as a Writer: Analyzing Rhetorical Choices
After watching the trailers for Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In, consider the question(s) below. Then “submit” your response.
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Writing as a Reader: Entering the Conversation of Ideas
After watching the trailers for Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In, consider the question below. Then “submit” your response.
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